Diving is a highly specialized activity that comes with significant risks like equipment failure, communication breakdown, or hazardous underwater environments. If proper procedures aren’t followed precisely, divers can face serious incidents. For military and commercial divers, the need for realistic, repeatable, and risk-free training solutions is critical. Without an effective way to rehearse in controlled conditions, divers may enter the water unprepared, leading to operational inefficiencies and compromised safety.

High Risk: Diving is a potentially hazardous activity that can lead to safety incidents if procedures are not correctly followed.

Costly and Resource Intensive: Traditional training methods are labor intensive, dangerous, costly and time consuming.

Limited Repetition and Scalability: Hands-on training is often constrained by time, location, and available resources which limits how often divers can actually practice.

For military divers, the need for a realistic, repeatable, and risk-free training solution is essential. Without an effective way to rehearse procedures in a safe and controlled environment, divers could enter the water unprepared leading to compromised safety.

What Is Confined Space Training?

Confined space training prepares workers to safely enter, work in, and exit areas that are not designed for continuous occupancy and may present limited access or egress. These spaces often have poor ventilation, low visibility, or the potential for hazardous atmospheres, requiring strict safety protocols.

Training typically covers:

• Hazard recognition and risk assessment

• Emergency response procedures

• Safe use of personal protective equipment (PPE)

• Communication and monitoring systems

• Permits and entry procedures

Confined space training ensures that teams can operate safely in these environments, which often have unique, high-risk characteristics.

Who Needs Confined Space Training?

This type of training is vital for personnel in industries where enclosed or restricted environments are common. Examples include:

• Military operations (e.g., divers, engineers working in tanks, vessels, or flooded structures)

• Oil and gas (e.g., storage tanks, pipelines)

• Construction (e.g., crawlspaces, silos)

• Manufacturing (e.g., pressure vessels, mixers)

• Utilities and water treatment (e.g., sewer systems, vaults)

Each industry faces different risks, but all benefit from scalable, repeatable training that reduces exposure during preparation phases and improves real-world performance.

Understanding Confined Spaces

According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a confined space is defined as any place, including chamber, tank, vat, silo, pit, trench, pipe, sewer, flue, well, or other similar space, which is substantially enclosed (though not always entirely) and where serious injury can occur from hazardous substances or conditions within the space or nearby.

Confined spaces may not be small in volume but are dangerous due to poor ventilation, restricted access, or potential for toxic or flammable atmospheres. A space does not need to be under a certain size to be considered confined, but generally, these environments are difficult to enter or exit and present physical or atmospheric hazards. The height, width, or depth is not fixed in law, but entry is typically restricted to openings less than 750 mm wide and environments less than 2 meters in height. Some confined spaces may be several meters deep, such as tanks or wells.

10 common examples of confined spaces include:

1. Storage tanks

2. Silos

3. Utility vaults

4. Ship holds

5. Pumping stations

6. Sewers and manholes

7. Boilers

8. Subsea pipelines

9. Crawlspaces in buildings

10. Trenches and pits

Legal and Safety Requirements

Under the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, any worker required to enter or work around a confined space must be adequately trained. This includes understanding potential hazards, using breathing apparatus or other PPE correctly, and responding to emergencies.

Employers must assess all confined space risks and provide training that is task-specific, practical, and repeatable. For military and high-risk environments like diving, this is even more critical. Failure to train properly can result in serious injury, fatalities, and legal consequences.

This reinforces why VR-based confined space training is not just innovative, but aligned with legal requirements and operational safety standards.